Error identification, indexing and linking construction documents

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides various systems and methods for indexing digital (electronic) documents and providing various error reporting and identification functions. The systems and methods may utilize various software, hardware, and firmware modules to identify notations, such as sheet names, anchors, and anchor references on construction documents. Various algorithms and methods may be employed to identify errors, erroneous notations, missing sheets, missing details, and/or the like to aid in the correction of construction documents. Identified notations are indexed and used to create hyperlinked pages that are easily navigable. In some embodiments, the hyperlinked pages may include previous- and next-sheet hyperlinks that allow for direct navigation within a set of pages, according to an order provided in an index sheet (e.g., a table of contents sheet).

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/277,078 filed on Feb. 15, 2019 titled “Error Identification, Indexingand Linking Construction Documents,” which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/156,184 filed on May 16, 2016 titled“Error Identification, Indexing and Linking Construction Documents,”which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 15/075,989 filed on Mar. 21,2016 titled “Systems and Methods for Indexing and Linking ElectronicDocuments” now granted as U.S. Pat. No. 9,600,480, which is acontinuation of Ser. No. 13/920,982 filed on Jun. 18, 2013 titled“Systems and Methods for Indexing and Linking Electronic Documents” nowgranted as U.S. Pat. No. 9,292,510, each of which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to machine-readable text analysis, databaseindexing, and error identification. More specifically, this disclosureprovides various systems and methods for identifying internalcross-references within a set of electronic construction documents toidentify errors and missing links.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the disclosure aredescribed herein, including various embodiments of the disclosureillustrated in the figures listed below.

FIG. 1 illustrates a flow chart of a method for indexing a plurality ofpages that include various notations, including sheet name notations(sheet names), anchor notations (anchors), and anchor referencenotations (anchor references).

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of a method for filtering and massagingmachine-readable text recognized using optical character recognition(OCR).

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method for characterizing a sheetname notation as either a primary sheet name notation or a referencesheet name notation.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of a method for distinguishing betweenprimary sheet name notations, reference sheet name notations, and anchorsheet name notations (i.e., sub parts of an anchor).

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a method for identifying an anchorbased on the proximity of an anchor identifier to an anchor sheet name.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method for identifying an anchorreference based on the proximity of an anchor identifier to a referencesheet name.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a construction page that can beprocessed by the embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a close-up view of the anchor of FIG. 7.

FIGS. 9A-9D illustrate examples of portions of linked construction pagesand navigation between them using hyperlinked notations.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a portion of a construction page withmultiple versions of anchor references.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a portion of a construction page withan anchor.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of the portion of the construction pageof FIG. 11 with a back link associated with the anchor being selectivelydisplayed.

FIG. 13 illustrates a close-up view of an anchor and an anchordescription.

FIG. 14 illustrates a construction page with reference sheet names, ananchor reference, and a primary sheet name.

FIG. 15 illustrates a close-up view of one type of anchor, including ananchor identifier and a primary sheet name.

FIG. 16 illustrates a close-up view of an alternative type of anchor,including an anchor identifier and a primary sheet name.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of a construction page including twoanchors and no primary sheet name.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example of another type of anchor or anchorreference.

FIG. 19 illustrates a table of contents of a plurality of constructionpages.

FIG. 20 illustrates a back link of an anchor showing all the primarysheet names that have an anchor reference referring to the anchor.

FIG. 21A illustrates an embodiment of a graphical user interface forindexing notations and/or internally linking notations within aplurality of pages.

FIG. 21B illustrates an OCR massaging tab of the embodiment of thegraphical user interface of FIG. 21A.

FIG. 21C illustrates a sheet name whitelist tab of the embodiment of thegraphical user interface of FIG. 21A.

FIG. 21D illustrates a building name whitelist tab of the embodiment ofthe graphical user interface of FIG. 21A.

FIG. 21E illustrates an index sheet (table of contents) page whitelisttab of the embodiment of the graphical user interface of FIG. 21A.

FIG. 22A illustrates a graphical user interface of a system whileindexing documents.

FIG. 22B illustrates a graphical user interface of a system whilerendering linked documents.

FIG. 22C illustrates a report on the statistics of the indexed andrendered documents.

FIG. 23 illustrates another example of a table of contents page for aplurality of construction pages.

FIG. 24 illustrates one of the pages referred to by the table ofcontents page of FIG. 23.

FIG. 25 illustrates another one of the pages referred to by the table ofcontents page of FIG. 23.

FIG. 26 illustrates a close-up view of an anchor and a primary sheetname of one of the pages referred to by the table of contents page ofFIG. 23.

FIG. 27 illustrates a system for indexing and linking electronicdocuments, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 28A illustrates a report summary from an error identificationmodule that includes potential errors, mistakes, missing documents,and/or other information.

FIG. 28B illustrates the results of a link comparison module, accordingto one embodiment.

FIG. 28C illustrates a report with results from an OCR verificationmodule, including identification of pages with no OCR and pages withcorrupt OCR within various files.

FIG. 28D illustrates a report of a sheet reference verification moduleidentifying sheets without a sheet name and sheets that are notreferenced by other sheets.

FIG. 28E illustrates a report from an indexed sheet verification moduleidentifying sheets that are not referenced by an index sheet.

FIG. 28F illustrates a report from a detail reference verificationmodule identifying details on sheets from a plurality for which noreference is found within a set of documents.

FIG. 28G illustrates a report from a bad link identification module thatidentifies links for which the referenced sheets or referenced anchorsare missing.

FIG. 28H illustrates a report from an authored anchor comparison moduleto identify potential discrepancies between the number of anchors onsheets identified by different authors or identification approaches.

FIG. 29A illustrates summary document of the results of hyperlinking andindexing a set of construction documents, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 29B illustrates a report from a sheet reference verification modulethat shows a list of sheets within a project that are not referenced byan index sheet of the construction set.

FIG. 29C illustrates a report from a detail reference verificationmodule showing every referenced detail in the project and each sheetthat references each respective detail.

FIG. 29D illustrates a report from the detail reference verificationmodule showing details within a project that are not referenced.

FIG. 29E illustrates a report from a bad link identification moduleshowing a list of links for which no sheet or detail can be found.

FIG. 30 illustrates a system for identifying potential or actual errors,omissions, discrepancies, warnings, missing items, mistakes, bad links,and the like, according to various embodiments.

The described features, structures, and/or characteristics of thesystems and methods described herein may be combined in any suitablemanner in one or more alternative embodiments, and may differ from theillustrated embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure provides various systems and methods for indexingdigital (electronic) documents. The present disclosure also providesvarious systems and methods for generating electronically linkeddocuments using the index. For clarity, the systems and methods areoften described in terms of steps of a method and/or as actionsperformed by a computing system. However, the systems and methodsdescribed herein may be implemented in hardware, software, and/orfirmware.

In various embodiments, an indexing system may receive a plurality ofdigital pages. The digital pages may be part of one or more electronicdocuments that have one digital page per document or multiple digitalpages per document. In some embodiments, the digital pages may havemachine-encoded text. For example, the digital pages may have beencreated in a word processor or other computer program that allows formachine-encoded text input.

In other embodiments, the digital pages may originate as scanned orimage-based digital pages. Optical character recognition (OCR) and/oranother image-text analysis technique may be utilized to generatedigital pages with machine-encoded text. For instance, a computerprocessor may perform the OCR or a human may manually convert image-textto machine-encoded text. In some embodiments, a combination of computerprocessing and manual inputs may be performed.

The machine-encoded text of each of the digital documents may beanalyzed to identify relevant notations. Although the systems andmethods may be utilized and/or readily adapted for use with variousdocument types and fields of interest, the remainder of thespecification uses construction plan documents as an example. In thatapplication, the indexing system may analyze the machine-encoded text toidentify notations such as sheet names, anchors, anchor references,building names, etc.

Sheet names identified on the pages may be categorized into primarysheet names and reference sheet names. Each page of the documents mayhave a primary sheet name, although some primary sheet names may beblank primary sheet names, such as a table of contents page and/or indexpage (index sheet). A page may include one or more anchors. An anchormay be referred to using various alternative terms including, but notlimited to, an anchor reference, a callout detail, an elevation detail,a detail, an elevation callout detail, and/or the like.

Each anchor may reference a particular portion of the page and mayinclude an anchor description. An anchor may include just an anchoridentifier, in which case it is understood that the anchor refers to thepage on which it is found. In other embodiments, an anchor may includean anchor identifier together with a reference to the sheet name of thepage on which it is found. That is, the anchor may include a referenceto the primary sheet name to clarify that the anchor is associated withthe page on which it is found.

Additionally, a page may include one or more anchor references. Ananchor reference may be directed to an anchor on another page. Forexample, an anchor reference may include an anchor identifier and areference sheet name. The anchor identifier of the anchor reference isdirected to an anchor on the page corresponding to the reference sheetname. In some embodiments, the construction documents may refer to morethan one building. In that case each primary sheet name may beassociated with one or more of the buildings.

After identifying the various notations, the indexing system maygenerate an index that maps various associations between the primarysheet names, reference sheet names, anchors, anchor references, and/orbuilding names. An “index” may include various sub-indexes. An index maybe implemented using any of a wide variety of data types, arrays,mappings, tags, and structs, and/or any of a wide variety of associateddata structures.

The index may be used to generate various reports related to the indexednotations, such as the number of anchor references that reference aparticular sheet name or the number of sheet names not referenced by anyanchor reference. The index may also be used to generate a plurality oflinked pages corresponding to the originally indexed pages. The linkedpages may provide various hyperlinks and integrated reports. Forexample, the linked pages may include hyperlinks for each of the anchorreferences that, when selected, direct a user to the referenced sheetname and/or anchor.

In some embodiments, analyzing the machine-encoded text, categorizing,and/or otherwise identifying notations may incorporate the usage of oneor more whitelists and/or regular expressions. The term “regularexpression” as used herein may relate to any type of software, hardware,or firmware module configured to automatically identify textual materialthat corresponds to one or more patterns, including text-based andimage-based patterns. The term “regular expression” may also be used asdefined in any of a wide variety of programming languages, as would beunderstood by one of skill in the art.

As used herein, the terms “hyperlinked” and “linked” are, in manyinstances, used broadly to encompass a variety of linking orhyperlinking variations. For example, the term “hyperlink” may be usedto describe a “link” or “link action” within a PDF document as supportedby, for example, ADOBE ACROBAT™. Thus, the term “hyperlink” or “link”might be used to describe a link action within a document intended to goto a page view, open a file, open a webpage, or implement a script thatincludes some form of redirection, highlighting, emphasizing, orlinking.

Understanding that modules may be implemented in software, hardware,firmware, and/or a combination thereof, the system may include anotation identification module that identifies any of the variousnotations described herein. The system may include a categorizationmodule that distinguishes between primary and reference sheet names. Thesystem may also include an indexing module that indexes each of theplurality of pages and associates the notations with one another, asdescribed herein.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment is includedin at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrases “in oneembodiment” and “in an embodiment” in various places throughout thisspecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.In particular, an “embodiment” may be a system, an article ofmanufacture (such as a computer-readable storage medium), a method,and/or a product of a process.

Furthermore, the described features, operations, or characteristics maybe combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. The orderof the steps or actions of the methods described in connection with theembodiments disclosed may be varied. Thus, any order in the drawings orDetailed Description is for illustrative purposes only and is not meantto imply a required order, unless otherwise specified.

Embodiments may include various features, which may be embodied inmachine-executable instructions executed by a general-purpose orspecial-purpose computer (or other electronic device). Alternatively,the features may be performed by hardware components that includespecific logic for performing the steps or by a combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware.

Accordingly, the various components, modules, systems, and/or featuresdescribed herein may be embodied as modules within a system. Such asystem may be implemented in software, firmware, hardware, and/orphysical infrastructure. Although not always explicitly named herein, amodule may be identified (named) based on a function it performs. Forexample, a module that is configured to display something may comprisespecific hardware, software, or firmware and be properly referred to asa “display module.”

Embodiments may also be provided as a computer program product includinga non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereoninstructions that may be used to program, or be executed on, a computer(or other electronic device) to perform processes described herein. Themachine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, hard drives,floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, solid-state memory devices, or othertypes of media/machine-readable media suitable for storing electronicinstructions. Moreover, a computer program product may be run, executed,downloaded, and/or otherwise used locally or remotely via a network.

The embodiments of the disclosure will be best understood by referenceto the drawings, wherein like elements are designated by like numeralsthroughout. In the following description, numerous specific details areprovided for a thorough understanding of the embodiments describedherein. However, those of skill in the art will recognize that one ormore of the specific details may be omitted, or other methods,components, or materials may be used. In some cases, operations are notshown or described in detail.

FIG. 1 illustrates a flow chart of a method 100 for receiving aplurality of pages and indexing various notations, including sheetnames, anchors, and anchor references. A system, such as a computingsystem comprising hardware, firmware, and/or software, may receive aplurality of digital pages, at 110. The system may receive the digitalpages as a set of individual documents or files. Alternatively, thesystem may receive the digital pages as a single document or file havingany number of pages.

In some embodiments, the digital pages may already includemachine-encoded text. In other embodiments, optical characterrecognition (OCR) may be used to generate corresponding digital pageswith machine-encoded text thereon, at 120. Alternatively,machine-encoded text that corresponds to text images on the originaldigital pages may be manually provided. The system may then analyze themachine-encoded text on each of the digital pages to identify one ormore types of notations, at 130. For example, the system may analyze themachine-encoded text to identify primary sheet names, reference sheetnames, anchors, anchor references, and/or building names.

In some embodiments, the system may identify sheet names and thenprocess the sheet names for categorization and subsequent indexing, at140. That is, each sheet name may be categorized as either a primarysheet name of a page or a reference sheet name that refers to theprimary sheet name of another page. Additionally, identified anchorsand/or anchor references may be processed and/or analyzed for indexing,at 150 and 160.

The system may generate an index that associates one or more of thesheet names (including primary and reference sheet names), anchors,and/or anchor references, at 170. For example, the index may associate aprimary sheet name notation with each of the plurality of digital pages,and associate each reference sheet name notation with the primary sheetname notation on the page on which it is identified.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of a method 200 for filtering andmassaging machine-readable text recognized using optical characterrecognition (OCR). As illustrated, a system may receive a document, suchas a document in the portable document format (PDF), at 210. Thedocument may include one or more pages and may include image-based text(e.g., handwritten, typewritten, printed, or other non-machine-encodedtext). The document may or may not also include some machine-encodedtext. The system may then perform OCR processing, at 220, to generatemachine-encoded text corresponding to the image-based text on thereceived document.

The system may then process the machine-encoded text using one or moreOCR filtering algorithms, at 230, to improve the accuracy of the OCRprocessing. As part of the OCR filtering or in addition to the OCRfiltering, the system may compare the machine-encoded text generated bythe OCR processing with a massage whitelist, at 250. The massagewhitelist may include a mapping of incorrect portions of text (e.g., aletter, symbol, word, or phrase) with corrected versions. For example,if a portion of the machine-encoded text is matched with an element inthe massage whitelist, the portion of the machine-encoded text may bereplaced with a corrected version, at 260. As a specific example, amassage whitelist may map the word “colour” with a replacement word“color.” Accordingly, the word “colour” may be replaced with the word“color” throughout the machine-encoded text on the document.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method 300 for characterizing asheet name as either a primary sheet name or a reference sheet name. Insome embodiments, the system may initially identify a sheet name aseither a primary sheet name or a reference sheet name. Alternatively,the system may identify a sheet name in general, at 305. If theidentified sheet name follows a primary sheet name definition (e.g.,matches a whitelist or satisfies a regular expression), at 310, thesystem may identify the sheet name as a primary sheet name, at 315.However, if the sheet name notation does not follow the primary sheetname definition, at 310, the system may identify the sheet name as areference sheet name, at 325. In some embodiments, if the sheet name isa primary sheet name, at 315, the system may determine if a buildingname is present, at 320, and identify the building name associated withthe sheet name, at 330.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of another method 400 for distinguishingbetween primary sheet names, reference sheet names, and anchor sheetnames that are part of an anchor. Initially, the system may identify anuncategorized sheet name. If a primary sheet name has not yet beenidentified for the page, at 410, and the uncategorized sheet namefollows a primary sheet name definition, at 420, then the uncategorizedsheet name may be categorized as a primary sheet name, at 440. If noprimary sheet name has been identified, at 410, and the uncategorizedsheet name does not follow the primary sheet name definition, at 420,the uncategorized sheet name may be identified as a reference sheetname, at 450.

If a primary sheet name has already been identified for the page, at410, and the uncategorized sheet name does not match the primary sheetname, at 430, the uncategorized sheet name may be identified as areference sheet name, at 450. If a primary sheet name has already beenidentified for the page, at 410, and the uncategorized sheet namematches the primary sheet name, at 430, the uncategorized sheet name maybe identified as an anchor sheet name, at 460.

As described above, an anchor reference may refer to an anchor onanother page. The anchor reference may include an anchor identifier anda reference sheet name, at 450. An anchor may include an anchoridentifier and/or an anchor identifier coupled with a reference to theprimary sheet name (an anchor sheet name).

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a method 500 for identifying ananchor based on the proximity of an anchor identifier to an anchor sheetname. If an anchor sheet name (i.e., a reference to the primary sheetname of the page on which the reference is located) has an anchoridentifier nearby, at 510, then an anchor is identified, at 520. If noanchor identifier is within a specified distance of the anchor sheetname, at 510, then the process ends without an anchor being identified.Once an anchor is identified, at 520, if there is text within aspecified range of the anchor, at 530, an anchor description may beassociated with the anchor, at 540.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method 600 for identifying ananchor reference based on the proximity of an anchor identifier to areference sheet name. In some embodiments, an anchor reference may onlybe identified if an anchor identifier is within a specific distance, at610, and/or in a particular direction relative to a reference sheetname, at 620 and 630. Otherwise, the identified anchor identifier maynot be an anchor reference, at 650. An anchor reference may beidentified and associated with the primary sheet name on which it isfound, the anchor to which it refers, the page to which it refers,and/or the primary sheet name to which it refers, at 640.

In each of FIGS. 1-6, methods are described that identify a notationwithin machine-encoded text. The notations may be identified and/orcategorized using a whitelist of one or more notations, by satisfyingpredefined criteria, by matching a predefined specification, and/orthrough the use of a regular expression. Although numerous variationsare possible, the following is an example of a regular expression thatmay be used to identify a sheet name:

public static readonly Regex SheetRegex = new Regex(@″ {circumflex over( )} (?<sheetName>  (?<normalSheetName>  [a-zA-Z]{1,3}  [ ]? (?<badDash>″″)?  ([\\.-])?[0-9]){1,6}  ([ \\.-]?[a-zA-Z])?[a-zA-Z]{0,3})  |  (?<coverSheet>  [cC][sS][1-9]  ) ) $  ″, RegexOptions.Compiled |RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace | RegexOptions. ExplicitCapture);

It will be appreciated by one of skill in the art that regularexpressions similar to the example above may be used to identify orcategorize building names, anchors, anchor references, and/or othernotations on one or more pages.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a construction page 700 that includes aprimary sheet name 710 and an anchor 715. The anchor 715 may beassociated with an anchor identifier, an anchor description 730, anddetail, elevation, section, or other image data 720 on the page 700. Thepage 700 may include additional image-based text, machine-encoded text,images, and/or other information, such as ownership information 740.

FIG. 8 illustrates a close-up view of an anchor 810 corresponding to theanchor 710 of FIG. 7. The anchor 810 on the page 800 may include ananchor identifier 812 and/or 815 and an anchor description 830. Theanchor 810 may be identified using a regular expression or other patternmatching algorithm.

FIGS. 9A-9D illustrate examples of portions of three linked constructionpages 900, 901, and 902. As previously described, the system mayidentify and index various notations on a plurality of pages, includingprimary sheet names, reference sheet names, anchor references, anchors,and possibly other notations. The index may map various relationshipsbetween each of the notations. The index may then be used to generateone or more linked pages, such as linked pages 900, 901, and 902.

As illustrated, the first linked page 900 of FIG. 9A may include a tableof contents 910 of various reference sheet names that refer to primarysheet names of other pages. Selecting a reference sheet name from thetable of contents 910, such as reference sheet name A-115, with a cursor(or other selection implement/method) may direct an operator to the page901 of FIG. 9B with the corresponding primary sheet name A-115, at 921.Accordingly, each reference sheet name in the table of contents 910 maybe a hyperlink that opens the hyperlinked page and/or navigates to thecorrect page within a document of multiple pages.

The second linked page 901 of FIG. 9B shows an anchor reference 920. Theanchor reference 920 may refer to a particular anchor on another pageand the primary sheet name of that other page. Accordingly, anchorreference 920 may include an anchor identifier (shown as the number 3)and a reference sheet name reference to the primary sheet name A-301 ofthe other page. Selecting the anchor identifier of the anchor reference920 may direct a user to a zoomed-in view of the corresponding anchor930 on the page 902 of FIG. 9C associated with the primary sheet nameA-301, at 931. Selecting the reference sheet name of the anchorreference 920 may direct a user to a zoomed-out view of the pageassociated with the primary sheet name A-301.

In FIG. 9C, the third linked page 902 includes A-301 as a primary sheetname 931, and an anchor 930 that refers to some image content or otherdetail, elevation, or section of the page 902. The anchor 930 mayinclude an anchor identifier (3) and a sheet name that is the same asthe primary sheet name 931 of the page 902 on which the anchor is found.In some embodiments, by clicking, right-clicking, mousing over, and/orotherwise selecting or partially selecting the anchor 930 (or othernotation), a user may display a back link pop-up window 950 thatdisplays a listing of primary sheet names that reference the anchor 930,as shown in FIG. 9D. Similarly, a back link pop-up window may beavailable for other notations and may include a listing of sheet names,anchors, and/or anchor references associated with a selected notation.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a portion of a construction page 1000with multiple versions of anchor references 1010, 1020, 1025, and 1030,and an anchor 1015. As illustrated, each of the anchor references refersto an anchor (identified by one or more anchor identifiers) on anotherpage (identified by a reference sheet name).

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a portion of a construction page 1100with an anchor 1110 associated with an image 1120 that provides variousdetails relating to a construction project. As previously described, thesystem may identify and index the anchor reference 1110 and distinguishit from other machine-encoded text, image-based text and/or imagecontent. The various systems and methods described above may be used toidentify and/or index any of the various notations described in any ofthe figures discussed herein.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a portion of a construction pagesimilar to the construction page illustrated in FIG. 11, but with a backlink 1215 associated with the anchor 1210 being selectively displayed.The back link 1215 may provide a listing of primary sheet names thatcorrespond to pages that have an anchor reference that refer to theanchor 1210. In some embodiments, each of the primary sheet names in theback link 1215 may be hyperlinks directed to the page corresponding tothe respective primary sheet names. In some embodiments, the hyperlinksmay automatically navigate a user to the hyperlinked page within adocument having multiple pages. In other embodiments, the hyperlinks mayautomatically open a separate file that has the hyperlinked page.

FIG. 13 illustrates a close-up view of another embodiment of an anchor1320 and an anchor description 1310. The illustrated anchor 1320 doesnot include a reference to the primary sheet name on which it is found.As described above, the system may be configured to identify and indexanchors in various forms and styles using a regular expression or otherprocessing and/or analyzing technique.

FIG. 14 illustrates a construction page 1400 with reference sheet names1420 within a keynotes box, an anchor reference 1415, and a primarysheet name 1410. The system, using the various methods described herein,may be configured to identify each of the reference sheet names 1420,the primary sheet name 1410 of the page, and the anchor reference 1415.The anchor reference 1415 may refer to an anchor identifier (2) on adifferent page that is associated with a primary sheet name (A427). Theindex may associate the primary sheet name 1410 with the page 1400 andeach reference sheet name 1420 with the primary sheet name for the pageon which it is identified and/or the pages to which it refers.

FIG. 15 illustrates a close-up view of one type of anchor 1510 on a page1500. As illustrated, the anchor 1510 may include an anchor identifier1515 (4) and a reference to the primary sheet name 1517 (A7.14) of thepage 1500 on which the anchor 1510 is located.

FIG. 16 illustrates a close-up view of an alternative type of an anchor1610 on a page 1600. As illustrated, the anchor 1610 may include ananchor identifier 1615 (2) and a reference to the primary sheet name1617 (A408) of the page 1600 on which the anchor 1610 is located. Theanchor 1610 may include an anchor description 1620 as well.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of a construction page 1700 including twoanchors 1710 and 1720, and a blank primary sheet name. As in previousembodiments, each anchor 1710 and 1720 may refer to a non-text itemuseful for construction.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example of another type of anchor or anchorreference 1810 on a page 1800. As in previous embodiments, the anchorreference 1810 may include an anchor identifier 1817 (8) and a referencesheet name 1812 (A7.14). As may be appreciated by comparing the variousstyles of anchors and anchor references, complex regular expressionsand/or other pattern matching algorithms may be used to identify andindex each of the various types of notations within a plurality ofpages.

FIG. 19 illustrates a table of contents 1900 that includes references toa plurality of construction pages. The table of contents 1900 may have ablank primary sheet name. The table of contents 1900 may have any numberof reference sheet names 1910, 1920, and 1930 arranged in variouscolumns and/or rows. In some embodiments, the system may recognize andidentify a table of contents 1900 based on characteristics associatedwith the columns and rows of reference sheet names 1910, 1920, and 1930.Each of the reference sheet names 1910, 1920, and 1930 may behyperlinked to a corresponding page. According to various embodiments,the system may identify the table of contents 1900 using a whitelist ofa file name associated with the page, using a page number of a documentassociated with the page, in response to a manual input, using a regularexpression, and/or using a pattern recognizing software module.

FIG. 20 illustrates another example of a back link 2010 of an anchor2020 showing all the primary sheet names that have one or more anchorreferences that refer to the anchor 2020. According to variousembodiments, each primary sheet name listed in the back link 2010 may bea hyperlink to a page corresponding to the primary sheet name. The backlink 2010 may be selectively viewed by selecting the anchor 2020 ingeneral, the anchor identifier 2025, and/or a primary sheet reference inthe bottom half of the circle (not illustrated). As in previousembodiments, the anchor 2020 may be associated with an anchordescription 2030 within the index. A system may index the notations ineach of the pages in a plurality of pages, as described herein, and usethe associations between the various notations to generate the back link2010 illustrated on page 2000.

FIG. 21A illustrates an embodiment of a graphical user interface 2100for a system for indexing notations and/or internally linking notationswithin a plurality of pages. The system may be configured with one ormore modules that may execute on a computing device (e.g., ageneral-purpose or special-purpose computer). The modules may interactwith one or more hardware and/or firmware modules. The interfacereceives one or more documents containing one or more pages, at 2110.Various settings may be adjusted using a plurality of tabs 2120. FIG.21A illustrates a general link tab 2125 that allows for various options,such as rotation settings, cache settings, and/or specific requirementsfor identifying sheet names, anchors, and/or anchor references. Theinterface may also include various reporting and/or output options 2127.

In some embodiments, the system may generate an index of pages, primarysheet names, reference sheet names, anchors, and/or anchor references.The index generated by the system may include one or more associationsbetween each of the notations and/or pages. The system may also includevarious rendering options 2129 for generating linked pages (e.g.,hyperlinked PDF pages/documents). As illustrated, the rendering options2129 may include, for example, previous-page and next-page hyperlinks onone or more of the pages. The previous-page and next-page hyperlinks maybe directed to previous and next pages, respectively, according to anorder of pages listed on a table of contents page (also known as anindex page or index sheet). The system may be executed by selecting the“Generate Linked PDFs” button 2150. In various embodiments, other filetypes besides PDFs are possible and a user may select a desired outputfile type.

FIG. 21B illustrates an OCR massaging tab 2130 of the embodiment of thegraphical user interface 2100 of FIG. 21A. The OCR massaging tab 2130may include a mapping of text (a letter, symbol, word, phrase, etc.)with corrected versions. For example, if a portion (e.g., a letter,symbol, word, or phrase) of the machine-encoded text is matched with anelement in the listed mapping, that portion of the machine-encoded textmay be replaced.

As illustrated, for example, any text matching “E6.01b” would bereplaced with “E06.01b.” The OCR massaging tab 2130 may allow forvarious common errors or anomalous errors to be automatically correctedthroughout a plurality of documents during the identification andindexing of the notations. The OCR massaging tab 2130 may also allow forchanges to be made to various portions of the text, even if they are noterroneous. For example, the primary sheet names of a set of documentsmay be revised automatically using the OCR massaging tab 2130.

FIG. 21C illustrates a sheet name whitelist tab 2135 of the embodimentof the graphical user interface 2100 of FIG. 21A. The sheet namewhitelist tab 2135 may include a list of primary and/or reference sheetnames that the system should automatically identify and index as primaryand/or sheet names, respectively, even if a regular expression or otherpattern recognizing software module does not identify them as sheetnames.

Similarly, FIG. 21D illustrates a building name whitelist tab 2137 ofthe embodiment of the graphical user interface 2100 of FIG. 21A. Thebuilding name whitelist tab 2137 may include a list of building namesthat the system should automatically identify and index as buildingnames, even if a regular expression or other pattern recognizingsoftware module does not identify those portions of machine-encoded textas building names.

FIG. 21E illustrates a table of contents page whitelist tab 2139 of theembodiment of the graphical user interface 2100 of FIG. 21A. The tableof contents page whitelist tab 2139 may include a list of table ofcontents pages that the system should automatically identify and indexas table of contents pages, even if a regular expression or otherpattern recognizing software module does not identify the pages as tableof contents pages. The table of contents pages may or may not includeprimary sheet names. In various embodiments, the index pages or indexsheets may be assigned a blank or hidden primary sheet name.

In some embodiments, the system may identify a primary sheet name foreach page of a plurality of pages. However, the primary sheet nameassociated with one or more index pages of the plurality of pages maynot be originally part of the pages received by the system. Rather, thesystem may distinguish between index pages (and possibly other pageswithout primary sheet names) by assigning (or using existing) uniqueidentification information for indexing purposes. Thus, while many pagesof a plurality of pages may include an explicit primary sheet name,index pages may or may not include a primary sheet name and may insteadinclude a blank primary sheet name and/or be otherwise uniquelyidentified within the index, which unique identification is referred toherein as a primary sheet name for simplicity.

FIG. 22A illustrates a graphical user interface 2200 of a graphical userinterface while indexing documents. As illustrated, one or moreprogressing 2235 and/or status 2240 bars may indicate a current progressof an identifying and/or indexing process. According to variousembodiments, the graphical user interface 2200 may include varioussteps, including an indexing step 2210, a rendering step 2220, and asummary display 2230.

FIG. 22B illustrates the graphical user interface 2200 of the graphicaluser interface while rendering linked documents, at 2220. Various statusand progress bars 2237, 2242, and 2250 may provide information to a userwho is waiting for the system to generate linked pages using the indexgenerated during the step illustrated in FIG. 22A. In some embodiments,the linked pages generated by the system correspond exactly to theoriginal pages received by the system, except that the notations,including the primary sheet names, reference sheet names, anchors,and/or anchor references, may be hyperlinks to the pages and/ornotations to which they refer. Additionally, next-page and previous-pagelinks and/or back link information may be generated for each page aswell.

In other embodiments, each of the linked pages generated by thegraphical user interface may be saved as a unique file, even if thepages originally received by the system were provided in one or moredocuments with multiple pages. In addition, the unique files for each ofthe linked pages may be saved with a file name corresponding to aprimary sheet name and/or building name. Moreover, the files for each ofthe linked pages may be organized within a database in an ordercorresponding to an order on an index or table of contents page.

FIG. 22C illustrates a report 2260 on the statistics of the indexed andrendered documents in the summary display 2230. The report may includestatistical information, such as the number of files created and thenumber of links generated.

FIG. 23 illustrates another example of a table of contents page 2310 fora plurality of construction pages. As illustrated the table of contentspage 2310 lists the primary sheet names of at least some of a pluralityof pages as reference sheet names 2321-2326 on the table of contentspage 2310. In the illustrated embodiment, the table of contents page2310 includes a primary reference sheet 2315. According to variousembodiments, a system may analyze the table of contents page 2310 andidentify and index notations, such as the reference sheet names2321-2326, and distinguish them from other machine-encoded text,descriptions, image-based text, stray lines, images, and/or othercontent on the table of contents page 2310.

The system may generate a corresponding linked page that appears similaror identical to the originally received table of contents page 2310. Thelinked page may include hyperlinks associated with each of the referencesheet names 2321-2326. Selecting a hyperlink associated with one of thereference sheet names 2321-2326 may direct a user to the pagecorresponding to the primary sheet name referenced by the referencesheet name 2321-2326. For example, selecting the reference sheet name(A8-04A) may automatically navigate the user to and/or open a page 2400illustrated in FIG. 24.

FIG. 24 illustrates the page 2400 with a primary sheet name 2410(A8-04A). The page 2400 may include one or more anchors and/or anchorreferences 2430 and 2440. The anchor 2440 may be associated with ananchor description 2445. In the illustrated embodiment, back linkinformation 2420 associated with the primary sheet name is selectivelydisplayed at 2415, such as when moused over, clicked on with a pointingdevice, and/or touched on a touch screen device. The back linkinformation 2420 may include a listing of anchors, anchor references,and/or other pages that reference the primary sheet name 2410.

FIG. 25 illustrates a linked page 2500 that is referred to by the tableof contents page 2300 of FIG. 23. As illustrated, the linked page 2500includes a primary sheet name 2530 (A2.10). The page 2500 includesvarious anchor references 2540-2543. Each anchor reference refers to ananchor by including an anchor identifier and the primary sheet name ofthe sheet on which the associated anchor is found. In some embodiments,by selecting an anchor reference at 2550, back link information 2560showing which other pages have a similar or identical reference anchoris displayed.

Additionally, the linked page 2500 may include next-sheet andprevious-sheet hyperlinks 2510, 2520 that will navigate a user and/oropen the appropriate files according to the order illustrated in thetable of contents page 2300 of FIG. 23. Thus, using page 2500 as anexample, selecting the previous-sheet hyperlink 2520 would navigate theuser to and/or open a file that has a page associated with the primarysheet name A2.00. Similarly, selecting the next-sheet hyperlink 2510would navigate the user to and/or open a file that has a page associatedwith the primary sheet name A8-04A (i.e., page 2400 of FIG. 24).

Each of the anchor references 2540-2543 may include an anchor identifierand a reference sheet name. Each anchor reference 2540-2543 may compriseone or more hyperlinks associated with at least the page that has theprimary sheet name referenced by the reference sheet name of each of theanchor references. Similarly, the anchor identifier may be a hyperlinkthat directs a user directly to a zoomed-in view of the anchor on thepage associated with the primary sheet name referenced by the referencesheet name. In the illustrated embodiment, each of the anchor references2540-2543 refers to an anchor (either A1 or E1) on the page associatedwith the primary sheet name A6.11.

FIG. 26 illustrates a close-up view of an anchor 2620 (A1) on the pageassociated with a primary sheet name 2630 (A6.11). The anchor 2620 maybe a section anchor, as described in the anchor description 2610.

FIG. 27 illustrates a system 2710 for indexing and/or generating linkedpages, as described herein. As previously described, each of the variousmodules may be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, and/or acombination thereof. Moreover, the computing device 2710 may compriseany number of disparate computing devices.

As illustrated, the computing system 2710 may include a processor 2730and/or a memory 2732 for interfacing with each of the various modules2741-2746. The computing device 2710 may include a receiving module 2741configured to receive one or more digital pages. The computing device2710 may include a notation identification module 2742 configured toidentify any of the various notations described herein, including sheetnames, anchors, and anchor references. The computing device 2710 mayinclude a categorization module 2743 configured to categorize each ofthe identified sheet name notations as either primary sheet namenotations or reference sheet name notations. The computing device 2710may include an indexing module 2744 configured to generate an index thatassociates various identified notations with one another. For example,an indexing module may generate an index that associates a primary sheetname notation with each of the plurality of digital pages, associateseach reference sheet name notation with the primary sheet name notationon which it is identified, associates each anchor notation with aprimary sheet name notation, and/or associates each anchor referencenotation with the anchor notation and primary sheet notation to which itrefers.

The computing device 2710 may include a whitelist module 2745 configuredto identify one or more of the various notations described herein bycomparing at least a portion of the machine-encoded text with one ormore of a whitelist of primary sheet names, a whitelist of referencesheet names, a whitelist of anchors, and/or a whitelist of anchorreferences. The computing device 2710 may include a page generationmodule 2746 configured to generate a plurality of linked pages using theindexed notations, as described herein. In some embodiments, a user mayinteract directly with the computing device 2710. In other embodiments,the computing device(s) 2710 may be accessed remotely. For example, aclient device 2750 may interact with the computing device(s) 2710. Anerror reporting module 2775 may generate reports that provideinformation about missing links, links for which referenced sheets donot exist, and/or other errors or potential errors as described herein.

FIG. 28A illustrates a report summary 2801 from an error identificationmodule that includes potential errors, mistakes, missing documents,and/or other information. As illustrated the error identification modulemay provide a summary 2802 of the number of: files rendered, links, pagelinks, prev/next/index links, index sheets found, pages that do notinclude OCR text, corrupt pages, pages without sheet names, unreferencedsheets, unindexed sheets, unreferenced anchors, bad links, and/or otherinformation.

The report generated by the error identification module may indicate whohas worked on the project, at 2803, and provide an indication of howmuch work each individual or entity performed. In some embodiments, theauthor information may include the names or identification informationof actual people. In other embodiments, the author information mayidentify human individuals, algorithms used, processing techniquesemployed, and/or other identifying information.

For instance, the author information may indicate that two humans workedon a project—Mark and Janet. Alternatively and/or additionally, theauthor information may indicate that Algorithm A was employed for partof the project and Algorithm B was employed for another part of theproject. The summary report and/or other reports may provide anindication of discrepancies between the output of the humans and thealgorithms, the two humans, or the two algorithms for portions of theprojects worked on by more than one entity.

FIG. 28B illustrates the results 2810 of a link comparison module,according to one embodiment. As illustrated, the link comparison modulemay identify a number of files 2811 that have been processed on one ormore dates, e.g., date column 2813. The date column 2813 may provide acount of the links found on each file 2811. Link count delta column 2812may identify a difference between the number of links identified on date2813 and prior (or later) dates on which the same files 2811 wereprocessed. Thus, the link comparison module may identify potentialdiscrepancies or processing errors based on a different number of linksbeing identified during different processing runs.

FIG. 28C illustrates a report 2820 with results from an OCR verificationmodule, including identification of files 2821 with no OCR 2822 andpages with corrupt OCR 2823. The pages with no OCR may or may not be anactual problem. A user may verify that the pages without OCR 2822 arenot problematic and/or if OCR processing is needed—whether performedmanually or automatically.

Pages with corrupt OCR 2823 may be expressed as an actual page range,number of pages, or a percentage of pages. In some embodiments, a lownumber of corrupt pages or a low percentage of corrupt pages may beignored, while a percentage or number of pages exceeding a thresholdvalue may be indicative of a problem. In some embodiments, any corruptpages may be automatically marked for reprocessing (manually orautomatically).

FIG. 28D illustrates a report 2830 of a sheet reference verificationmodule identifying sheets without a sheet name 2831 and sheets that arenot referenced by other sheets 2833. The sheet reference verificationmodule may determine if the sheets that do not have a sheet name 2831have been OCRed or not, at 2832. The sheets that are not referenced 2833within each file may be listed by sheet name 2834.

FIG. 28E illustrates a report 2840 from an indexed sheet verificationmodule identifying sheets 2842 within a plurality of files 2841 of aproject that are not referenced by an index sheet of the constructiondocument set.

FIG. 28F illustrates a report 2850 from a detail reference verificationmodule identifying details on sheets from a plurality for which noreference is found within a set of documents. The detail referenceverification module may process a number of files 2851 to identifysheets 2852 that contain details that are never referenced by a sheetwithin the project 2853. The lack of any reference to the detail may beindicative of a problem or, for example, indicate that a set ofconstruction documents are missing information.

FIG. 28G illustrates a report 2860 from a bad link identification modulethat identifies links for which the referenced sheets are missing. Thebad link identification module 2860 may process a plurality of files2861 to identify sheets 2862 that include sheets 2863 that referencedetails 2864 that do not exist elsewhere in the set of constructiondocuments. For example, the 005_A0.5—CODE ANALYSIS.pdf file may includea sheet with a sheet name A05 that references detail A on sheet A32.However, the bad link identification module may identify this link as a“bad link” for the reason 2865 that sheet A32 does not exist within theset of construction documents. The reason 2865 that link is identifiedas bad may be because the sheet is missing (as illustrated) or becausethe specific detail does not exist on the referenced sheet.

FIG. 28H illustrates a report 2870 from an authored anchor comparisonmodule to identify potential discrepancies between the number of anchorson sheets identified by different authors or identification approaches.As illustrated, the authored anchor comparison module may compare thenumber of anchors identified by different dates 2874 and 2875. Theauthored anchor comparison module may determine an anchor count delta2873 based on differences between the number of anchors identified oneach particular date 2874 and 2875.

The difference may be expressed in absolute numbers (as illustrated), aspercentages, or even by simply indicating “discrepancy” or “nodiscrepancy.” The authored anchor comparison module may process everyfile in a set of construction documents, or a subset list of files 2871.Each file may have only one page (as illustrated), or a plurality ofpages. In embodiments in which the authored anchor comparison moduleprocesses a plurality of pages in a single file, the anchor count deltamay be shown for each page of the file or for the file as a whole.

FIG. 29A illustrates summary document 2900 of the results ofhyperlinking and indexing a set of construction documents, according toone embodiment. The report may be generated by the system illustrated inFIG. 27 using any of the various techniques, methods, and algorithmsdescribed herein

FIG. 29B illustrates a report 2910 from a sheet reference verificationmodule that shows a list of sheets within a project that are notreferenced by an index sheet of the set of construction drawings (e.g.,a table of contents). The sheet reference verification module mayprocess all or a subset of files 2911 within a set of constructiondocuments to identify those sheets 2912 that are not included in amaster index sheet or in a sub-index sheet (e.g., an index of justplumbing documents or an index sheet of just electrical documents).

FIG. 29C illustrates a report 2920 from a detail reference verificationmodule showing every referenced detail in the project and each sheetthat references each respective detail. As illustrated, a detailreference verification module may provide a comprehensive list of sheets2922, detail numbers, sheets that reference the detail or sheet 2923,and the reference file path 2924. The detail reference verificationmodule may process all of the files 2921 of a set of constructiondocuments or a subset thereof. As in many of the illustrated reports,previous-page and next-page links may allow a user to navigate a reportgenerated by a module if the report does not fit on a single page.

FIG. 29D illustrates a report 2930 from a detail reference verificationmodule showing details within a project that are not referenced. For anynumber of files 2931, the detail reference verification module mayidentify those sheets 2932 that contain one or more details that are notreferenced 2933.

FIG. 29E illustrates a report 2940 from the bad link identificationmodule showing a list of links or details 2944 for which no sheet ordetail can be found. For example, the bad link identification module mayprocess a number of files to identify those sheets 2942 on which ananchor reference is found that cannot be or is not hyperlinked becausethe referenced sheet 2943 is missing 2945 or the referenced anchornotation 2944 is not found on the referenced sheet 2943. Such an anchorreference notation constitutes an erroneous anchor reference notationbecause the anchor reference notation does not exist on the referencedsheet or the referenced sheet does not exist.

FIG. 30 illustrates a system for identifying potential or actual errors,omissions, discrepancies, warnings, missing items, mistakes, bad links,and the like, according to various embodiments. It is appreciated thatsome identified anomalies may or may not represent mistakes, errors oromissions. For example, it may be intentional that an anchor notation ona sheet is not referenced by any other sheet. However, it is unlikelythat a construction document will intentionally include an anchorreference with an anchor reference sheet name and/or an anchor referencenotation that does not actually exist.

Thus, error reporting module 2775 of FIG. 27 may include one or moremodules of error identification device 3010 and/or interface with aspecialized error identification device 3010 to identify potential oractual errors, omissions, discrepancies, warnings, missing items,mistakes, bad links, or the like. The error identification device 3010may be customized in manufacturing or programming to perform variousidentification, reporting, or verification functions for the hyperlinkedand/or indexed documents. Each module 3034-3048 may represent hardware,firmware, and/or software components for performing a specializedfunction relating to identification, reporting, or verification.

The device 3010 may be tailored to perform those functions in animproved manner over a general-purpose computer, and one or more of themodules may modify a device having a processor 3030 and memory 3032 tobecome a special purpose or specialized device. The error identificationdevice may be construction document specific. The error identificationdevice may include various user interfaces, electronic displays, inputdevices, communication ports, network capabilities, and/or the like.

A link comparison module 3034 may identify a number of files that havebeen processed on one or more dates and compare the number of linksfound during each processing event. The link comparison module 3034 mayidentify and/or report a “link count delta” summarizing discrepanciesbetween the number of links identified on each date. An OCR verificationmodule 3036 may identify files for which no OCR has been performed andpages with corrupt OCR 2823. The numbers may be expressed as an actualpage range, a number of pages, or a percentage of pages.

The error identification device 3010 may include a sheet referenceverification module 3038. The sheet reference verification module 3038may identify sheets that do not have a sheet name and, optionally,determine if these un-named sheets have been properly OCRed. Moreover,the sheet reference verification module 3038 may also determine which ofthe sheets within a set of construction documents or specific fileswithin the set of construction documents are not referenced by any othersheet.

The error identification device 3010 may also include an index sheetverification module 3040 that identifies any sheets not included on anindex sheet of a set of construction plans. The detail referenceverification module 3042 may process a number of files to identifysheets that contain details that are never referenced by a sheet withinthe project. For example, the detail reference verification module 3042may identify anchor notations that are never referenced by an anchorreference on any other sheet within the set of construction documents orat least within the processed files.

A bad link identification module 3044 may identify links, references,anchor references, anchor reference sheet names, anchor referencenotations, or similar pointers that point to something that does notexist within the set of documents or files.

For example, the bad link identification module 3044 may identify sheetsthat include anchor reference notations that include (1) a referencesheet name notation and (2) a reference to an anchor notation on thereferenced sheet. If the referenced sheet does not exist or the anchorreference on the referenced sheet does not exist, the bad linkidentification module 3044 may notify a user or otherwise report theerror.

An authored anchor comparison module 3046 may compare the number ofanchors identified on different dates for a particular sheet or file anddetermine a delta. The delta or difference may be expressed as a number,as a percentage, or in a pass/fail fashion. Each of the modules3034-3046 may implement a processing or identification function based onthe algorithms and methods described herein. The error identificationdevice 3010 may utilize an error reporting or identification module 3048to generate a report and/or otherwise notify a user or other system of apotential or actual error or discrepancy.

In various embodiments, the error identification device 3010 may includean API to allow other systems or programs to utilize the functionalitiesor results of the various modules 3034-3048. Any of the modules3034-3046 may be broadly referred to as an “error identification module”configured to identify and/or report one or more actual errors orpotential errors as per the specific functionality of the module.

Many changes may be made to the details of the above-describedembodiments without departing from the underlying principles and scopeof the present disclosure.

What is claimed:
 1. A categorization, indexing and reporting system,comprising: a processor, and memory; an input subsystem to interact withthe processor and memory to receive a plurality of digital pages havingsheet name notations thereon; a categorization subsystem to: categorizeeach sheet name notations that refers to a primary sheet name notationpurported to be on another of the plurality of digital pages as areference sheet name notation, and categorize each sheet name notationas a primary sheet name notation that is not categorized as a referencesheet name notation; an indexing subsystem to generate a digitallyaccessible electronic index that: associates each primary sheet namenotation with one of the plurality of digital pages, and associates eachreference sheet name notation with (i) the digital page on which it islocated, and (ii) the primary sheet name notation to which it refers; anerror identification subsystem to identify at least one reference sheetname notation that refers to a primary sheet name notation that is notin the electronic index as an erroneous reference sheet name notation;and a reporting subsystem to generate a report of the electronic indexthat identifies each erroneous reference sheet name notation and thedigital page on which it is located, wherein the report includes atleast one primary sheet name notation referenced by at least tworeference sheet name notations on different, non-sequential digitalpages.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the reporting subsystem isconfigured to identify the digital page on which each erroneousreference sheet name notation is located by providing the primary sheetname notation of the digital page on which the erroneous reference sheetname notation is located.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein thegenerated electronic index includes a first primary sheet name notationon a first digital page referred to by (1) a first reference sheet namenotation on a second digital page and (2) a second reference sheet namenotation on a third digital page, and wherein the system furthercomprises a backlink generation module to create a backlink for thefirst primary sheet name within the electronic report with hyperlinks toeach of the first reference sheet name notation and the second referencesheet name notation.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first digitalpage, the second digital page, and the third digital page areinterspersed and non-sequential within the plurality of digital pages.5. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic report furthercomprises backlink information associated with at least one of theprimary sheet name notations, wherein the backlink informationassociated with each respective primary sheet name notation comprises areport of plurality of digital pages, listed by primary sheet namenotations, that include reference sheet name notations that referenceeach respective backlinked primary sheet name notation.
 6. The system ofclaim 5, wherein the selectively viewable backlink information isviewable by a user in response to a mouse-over on the backlinked primarysheet name notation, such that by mousing-over on the backlinked primarysheet name notation, the user is able to view a list of primary sheetname notations of digital pages that include reference sheet namenotations thereon that refer to the backlinked primary sheet namenotation within the report.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein one of theplurality of digital pages comprises an index sheet of primary sheetnames within the plurality of digital pages, and wherein the reportingmodule is further configured to generate a report of the primary sheetnames identified within the plurality of digital pages that are notlisted within the index sheet.
 8. A system, comprising: a computingdevice comprising a processor and memory; an input module to interactwith the processor and memory of the computing device to receive aplurality of digital pages having machine-encoded sheet name notationsthereon, including primary sheet name notations and reference sheet namenotation, wherein each reference sheet name notation refers to a primarysheet name notation presumably on another of the plurality of digitalpages; and a reporting module to generate an electronic report thatidentifies each primary sheet name notation and each reference sheetname notation within the plurality of digital pages, wherein the primarysheet name notations are non-sequentially located within the pluralityof digital pages.
 9. The system of claim 8, further comprising: anindexing module to generate a digitally accessible electronic index in anon-transitory computer readable medium that: associates each identifiedprimary sheet name notation with one of the plurality of digital pages,and associates each reference sheet name notation with the primary sheetname notation on which it is identified, wherein the reporting module isfurther configured to generate a report of the electronic index thatidentifies each reference sheet name notation that refers to a primarysheet name notation that is not in the electronic index.
 10. The systemof claim 9, further comprising an error identification subsystem toidentify each reference sheet name notation that refers to a primarysheet name notation that is not in the electronic index as an error, andwherein the reporting module is further configured to identify eacherror within the electronic report.
 11. The system of claim 9, whereinthe electronic report includes at least one primary sheet name notationreferenced by at least two reference sheet name notations on differentdigital pages.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the generatedelectronic index includes a first primary sheet name notation on a firstdigital page referred to by (1) a first reference sheet name notation ona second digital page and (2) a second reference sheet name notation ona third digital page, and wherein the system further comprises abacklink generation module to create a backlink for the first primarysheet name within the electronic report with hyperlinks to each of thefirst reference sheet name notation and the second reference sheet namenotation.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first digital page,the second digital page, and the third digital page are interspersed andnon-sequential within the plurality of digital pages.
 14. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the electronic report further comprises backlinkinformation associated with at least one of the primary sheet namenotations, wherein the backlink information associated with eachrespective primary sheet name notation comprises a report of pluralityof digital pages, listed by primary sheet name notations, that includereference sheet name notations that reference each respective backlinkedprimary sheet name notation.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein theselectively viewable backlink information is viewable by a user inresponse to a mouse-over on the backlinked primary sheet name notation,such that by mousing-over on the backlinked primary sheet name notation,the user is able to view a list of primary sheet name notations ofdigital pages that include reference sheet name notations thereon thatrefer to the backlinked primary sheet name notation within the report.16. The system of claim 8, wherein one of the plurality of digital pagescomprises an index sheet of primary sheet names within the plurality ofdigital pages, and wherein the reporting module is further configured togenerate a report of the primary sheet names identified within theplurality of digital pages that are not listed within the index sheet.17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storinginstructions that, when executed by a processor, are configured to causethe processor to: receive a plurality of digital pages havingmachine-encoded text, wherein the machine-encoded text of the pluralityof digital pages includes a plurality of notations, including primarysheet name notations and reference sheet name notations, wherein eachreference sheet name notation refers to a primary sheet name notation onanother of the plurality of digital pages; and generating a digitallyaccessible electronic index in a non-transitory computer-readable mediumthat associates each identified primary sheet name notation with one ofthe plurality of digital pages, and associates each reference sheet namenotation with (i) the digital page on which it is located and (ii) theprimary sheet name notation to which it refers, wherein the electronicindex includes at least one primary sheet name notation referred to bymultiple reference sheet name notations on different, non-sequentialdigital pages.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable storage mediumof claim 17, wherein the electronic index identifies each referencesheet name notation that refers to a primary sheet name notation that isnot in the electronic index.